Most founders misunderstand what a VC rejection means and waste time
Peter Pham · 20VC: Science Inc's Peter Pham on Why The Battle Between Entrepreneurs & VCs Is Unfair, How To Even The Playing Field & How To Tell When A VC Really Is Interested · Aug 29, 2016 · at 10:47
Peter Pham, co-founder of Science Inc., highlights a common operational mistake founders make when evaluating feedback from venture capitalists.
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“The process of honestly understanding what a no means, which is, I think most entrepreneurs just have no idea and they waste their time, right?”
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More from Peter Pham
When a VC says they couldn't convince their partners, it is a lie
“The cop-out of every GP and every partner is always the, well, I love the deal, but I couldn't get my partners. No, that's actually a lie. They didn't have the conviction. They, they're using that for optionality for later, right?”
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“I think it's unfair, I think, in the battle of entrepreneurs, the VCs to get money in the sense that a VC has been doing this for years, right? They're getting a couple pitches a day, years, and so their default answer is a no.”
Science Inc. endured 3,000 rejections to raise $350M and build Dollar Shave Club
“At this point, I think I'm at 3000 plus no's. Right. And you know, what counts is the 83 yeses that we've had, and three hundred and fifty million raised against the portfolio, and now, of course, the Dollar Shave Club billion-dollar exit.”
VCs judge startups in hours, while studios evaluate founders over months
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